Due to our strong personal convictions, we wish to stress that this Newswire article in no way endorses a belief in Michael Jackson.
–The A.V. Club
Marking the 33rd anniversary of Michael Jackson unleashing his juggernaut album Thriller onto the world, Google Play is giving the multi-platinum-selling album away for free this week. The offer is available for U.S. residents, from now until November 27.
At the risk of courting controversy, we’re going to take a stand on this one: Thriller—which, to this day, maintains its place as the best-selling album in the history of recorded music—is really good, and picking it up gratis sounds like a pretty good deal. Since there’s not much more to say about that, then, let’s turn our attention to a related, but far more important topic: How weird is it that Thriller came out right around Thanksgiving?
November 30, specifically, but still: Halloween was so close! (Meanwhile, the John Landis-directed video for “Thriller,” which came out the next year, landed closer to Christmas than anything else.) Was the decision to eschew the ghoul-based holiday in favor of Turkey Day a reflection of production schedules? Jackson’s Jehovah’s Witness beliefs? His fraught relationship with his family, which might have transformed Thanksgiving into the more terrifying of the two holidays? We’ll probably never know; but hey, at least we can enjoy our uncertainty in the company of free copies of “Beat It” and “Billie Jean.”